Christine's walking & birds blog

Greger's driving down to Farnborough once again for this year's Fully Charged show; but the unfettered birding I planned to indulge in today was brought to a halt by rain. I was all prepared with a full tank to go anywhere, but I didn't see any point in using up petrol to drive somewhere where it was also raining; so I stayed local and paid a visit to Ardmair, walking along the beach to the spit. Around twenty sand martins were hunting low over the camp-site, the beach, and the sea, often zipping past me very close.  Now and then two would converge and fly together for a while, their harsh calls becoming more urgent - pair-bonding, maybe. One had landed on a rock for a preen.

The air was also full of the sound of twite singing and the daft cooing of Eider. A great northern diver was in advanced summer plumage and two black guillemots looked black and dapper. A screamy call from the waterline announced the presence of dunlin, and one flew over to forage on the grassy area above the stones - my first west-coast dunlin this year.

Also present: two or three pied wagtails, at least ten meadow pipits, and two wheatears. As they suddenly all flew up twittering, a dark shape glided by low and landed on a boulder. The sparrowhawk was my first at Ardmair.